iphone charger for the JMT

leave your gizmos at home and spend some time enjoying the wilderness on its own terms.

Do you mean something like a solar charger or extra battery for charging on the trail itself or just something to charge at TM, Reds, MR, etc.?

yeah a decent solar charger or light battery pack would be nice? thanks for the reply.

Have a look at the MINI GORILLA BATTERY PACK.

I use the justmobile battery pack. The larger one I have gives 2 – 3 full charges. No bells and whistles, just power. This could last weeks if you are largely keeping you phone turned off.

I don't think they have a charger for the JMT yet.
You may be able to get by with the AT, PCT or CDT model:-)

I think the least expensive solution you'll find is the iPhone batteries from monoprice.com.

They're quite light (scale hasn't arrived yet, but I would guess about 1 oz) and pack a lot of power for about $15.

You might be surprised how long the built in battery can last if you turn off 3G, Bluetooth, dim the screen, etc. I took my iPhone 4 into the Teton wilderness last summer to use as a GPS unit (and Music/Camera/Books/Notepad/Flashlight etc.) with AccuTerra maps (Gaia GPS, Maplets, and EveryTrail Pro are other good mapping/navigation apps that can store maps offline so you don't need a signal to navigate. I used AccuTerra because their maps are proprietary and really good.) and after 6 days of keeping the phone mostly in Airplane mode (which you have to turn off to allow GPS to work), I still had 18% on the battery.

Silly that one can't ask a perfectly valid question like this without some luddite troll asserting that your outdoor experience is invalid if you prefer a 5 oz. iPhone to carrying a Sextant, Ukulele, DSLR, Notebook, and the collected works of Fyodor Dostoevsky just because it has a battery.

I bought an IPhone charger from ebay, an external charging device that can recharge my devices. It can recharge my iPhone 4 about 3 times. I don’t carry this stuff with me everywhere but this is the luxury that you can carry if you go ultralight (10 pound base weight). I really like listening to music when I hike; it gets me through hours of switchbacks when needed, and watching movies during 4 days of non-stop rain in Denali. Here is my setup, I recommend getting an external speaker if listening to music with friends. The X-mini speakers have their own battery so it really saves on the devices batteries as it does not drain the battery as fast.

Tecyrea external charger 5 oz
Ipod shuffle 0.5 oz
Headphones 0.5 oz
Iphone 4 6 oz
X-mini speakers 2.5 oz

I prefer a recharger based on AA batteries. Then you can either use AA batteries found anywhere, or get use rechargable AA batteries and use a solar or hand-cranked device to boost them. TekCharge MP1550 can use either 2 or 4 AA batteries (tekkeon.com). Weighs 1.5 oz, with 4 rechargeable AA's 5 oz. I think it cost less than $30.

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Kaleb-
Put your iPhone in your empty titanium cup/pot and it acts like a speaker – then you can leave the x-mini speakers at home.

Mike

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..duplicate posts..

Tim,
Take a look at the Minty Boost which uses AA batteries to charge a phone:
Minty Boost

Then take a look at the Instructable on how to make a solar version:
Solar Minty Boost.

Mike

GPS maps, applets for this, applets for that, music all day long, television . . .
I don't get it.
You guys don't want to connect with the wilderness.
You really don't even Want to be in the wilderness . . . so why bother :-(

"You guys don't want to connect with the wilderness.
You really don't even Want to be in the wilderness . . . so why bother :-("

People go into the 'wilderness' for various reasons Art. I've never quite figured out why folks get so dismayed because someone wants to enjoy the backcountry differently than they do.

Hey Art,

It sounds like you are a free person. Many are not and must be tied to their umbilical chord if they go backpacking.

If they didn't have the smartphone, they would only be able to do day hikes or give up the family, jobs, home, car, …

We may not appreciate the way other people live their lives, but HYOH and let others do the same.

Of course HYOH is the only way to truly "Be" in life … I'm the first to agree.
I'm just saying that a wilderness experience is the perfect time to step out of your urban shells and Be someone different, if only for a short period of time.
You guys are missing out … if you want to HYOH and bring your shells to the wilderness, its fine with me … except when I'm on a mountain top in the middle of no where and two guys pull out their cells phones and proceed to call everyone they know (yup true story), so I'm fine with your HYOH just don't destroy my HYOH Please.

"HYOH is the standard response on this site whenever someone has no Real response."

Actually, I most often see your response (and those like it) as someone who has no "Real" response to others' desire to hike as they wish without having to conform to your wishes or your idea of what a hike should be.

"I'm fine with your HYOH just don't destroy my HYOH Please"

This, of course, is what it really boils down to. We are in agreement.

most electronic gadget users have a mind set very similar to cigarette smokers of the 1950's and 60's. they feel they have the right to use them any time any where no matter how it impacts others (movie theaters, restaurants, wilderness).
Freedom is Not freedom to do what you please.

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there is nothing wrong with electronics and modern technology, though I question whether some of it is truly an advancement.

If your phone is causing interference with your wild pure soul, change carriers. If you find it umbilical, you're not doing it right.

The inability to extricate one's soul from one's smartphone when in close proximity suggests a greater attachment to technology than I have.

Regarding Art's previous post, rude use of technology is indeed like bad manners in smoking (a habit I equate with being willfully flatulent), but the problem is with individuals' manners, not the technology.

My iPhone increases my connection "to the void" by streamlining my gear (I carry fewer gadgets, be they electronic or analog, and it's more seamless in use), and speeding my navigation (10 seconds with the GPS app doesn't interrupt my "commune" so much as several minutes puzzling over a map. I don't even have to stop walking.).

Several college friends and I took a trip into the Teton Wilderness last summer. One of them, Joe, set out determined to do all our navigation sans electronics. Within a matter of hours, the "trails" we were on became invisible and we had to stop for extended periods to figure out where we were. A couple of times we had to trek through a half mile of marsh grass to get back to the trail. We weren't touching the void because it was dang hard to find the void. On day 2 I broke out my iPhone, and we didn't get stuck or lost once for the rest of the week. Our commune was continuous. Our minds at ease, we didn't "touch" the void, we charged it with primal abandon.

Art, have you read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"? It has an extensive philosophical discussion of technology and its integration in our lives. The author was, of course, using the metaphor of fairly simple internal combustion engines as his "technology", but engines also have an air of mystery about their workings to those not intimately familiar with them (like me, for instance), a mystery that becomes frustrating and burdensome when they don't function as wished. I think you might find the discussion illuminating, and it happens in the first several chapters. It might help you stop viewing the rest of us as the spiritual cripples of the backcountry, stumbling blindly with the narrow focus of a child chasing a ball into traffic. It might even give you an idea of what you're missing yourself.

Tim,

I posted a first impression of the Nomad 7 last weekend. You might want to look at it. It works as specified at home. I don't see me using this backpacking as I rarely take electronics… but on an extended thru hike I would consider it.

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re: Art's post. I really could care less what other people do, and don't care to change anyone else's mind. I don't even try to convince people to try backpacking if they have never tried it. As a matter of fact, I wish they would stay out of the wilderness… it is already too crowded :)

For me I rarely take any electronics to include a camera. I take a mini photon light and that is it. I use technology everyday… smart phones, smart phone as a modem for my laptop, sync phone with computer, etc, etc.

For me, I hike to enjoy the wilderness, and have no need for music, data or communication. I usually hike alone because I don't want to communicate with anyone for a while, I want to enjoy quiet and my surroundings. I enjoy my own company.

My compass weighs under an ounce. I know how to use a map. No batteries to go dead, and less likely to break a compass. I have never broken a compass. I have broken electronic gear at home, under less primitive conditions than when I hike.

I do buy new technology gear if it reduces weight.

If you need or want an iPhone or other stuff, take it. I could care less what you are seeking on your hikes. Heck, take a boom box, just don't play it loud enough to bother others. Take a cooler if you need ice cold beer. It is none of my business.

If I were to hike the PCT, I would probably take my iPhone. But I would only use it to call my wife once in a while, because she would not let me take the trip if I did not call occasionally.